International

Kayishema’s arrest is a good move, but not enough

2023-05-31 05:12:00

Fulgence Kayishema, one the most wanted Genocide fugitives, was arrested on May 24, in Paarl, South Africa.

He had been a fugitive for more nearly 30 years.

He is allegedly responsible for murdering more than 2,000 Tutsi, who had took refuge at the Nyange Church in Kivumu Commune on April 15, 1994. He directly participated in the planning and execution of this massacre, including using a bulldozer to demolish the church, burying the Tutsi in the rubble, and then supervised the transfer of corpses from the church grounds into mass graves over the next two days.

According to the ICTR indictment, Kayishema is accused of four counts of: Genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, conspiracy in Genocide and conspiracy in committing Genocide.

His arrest was followed by a collection of statements from across the world; with representatives of the UN, AU, US and notable leaders commending the good work, pointing that that justice can be secured.

His arrest is indeed laudable. But almost three decades after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, impunity of perpetrators has become rampant, that in case one is arrested, or going to trial, the whole world is astonished! And there is no one else to blame but these same ‘leaders’ lacking political will, to bring these génocidaires to book.

The latest arrest means there are now just three of the most wanted fugitives indicted by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). There are over 1,100 Genocide fugitives in 33 countries.

To date, no single African country has prosecuted genocide fugitives despite harboring almost 800 of them, mostly in east and southern Africa. The UK, US, The Netherlands, Australia, Finland, and Sweden, are some of the Western countries that have totally refused to part ways with Genocide fugitives.

Despite the IRMCT, and the Rwandan prosecution, providing evidence of some fugitives’ whereabouts, arrests are never or rarely made, proving again that Genocide impunity has become a tradition in many countries.

It is undeniable that it takes time to prepare the cases of these individuals. But should Genocide victims and survivors wait more than 30 years again to see any kind of justice served? Each passing day is one too many.

Kayishema’s whereabouts had been known since 2018 but the South African government refused to apprehend him, something that was strongly criticized by the prosecution of the Mechanism at the UN Security Council in November 2020.

The non-cooperation of these countries makes the process very slow and difficult. For instance, in The Hague, Félicien Kabuga, is standing trial as one of the key financiers of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda.

Now 92, Kabuga has been diagnosed with dementia, and might be declared unfit to stand trial, or die, while still under the presumption of innocence. This shows that justice delayed is justice denied. If Kabuga had been apprehended early in the several countries he hid in, this scenario would have been avoided, effectively delivering justice.

Kayishema’s arrest should come as a wakeup call to all these countries, and they should know that they owe nothing less to the victims and survivors of the 1994 genocide, but full cooperation in apprehending génocidaires.